Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen disproved the adage that American lives have no second acts. After decades as a leading man in genre motion pictures like "Forbidden Planet" (1956) and "The Plainsman" (1966), Nielsen inserted his serious, authoritative persona into the parody-based comedies of the Zucker brothers and enjoyed a highly successful second career arc in films like "Airplane" (1980) and especially the "Naked Gun" series (1988, 1991, 1994), as well as "Scary Movie 3" (2003) and "Scary Movie 4" (2006). The key to the silver-haired leading man's timeless success was his deadpan delivery and seeming obliviousness to situations rife with sight gags and slapstick comedy. There was simply no one like him and people of all ages responded for over two decades to his brilliantly empty-headed persona.